1. Technical Field
The embodiments described herein relate to a semiconductor apparatus, and more particularly, to a test circuit that can control power supplied to a lower circuit section provided below a pad and monitor the result thereof even when a test probe is not optimally placed on the pad.
2. Related Art
A conventional process for manufacturing a semiconductor chip includes a fabrication process (FABrication Process; ‘FAB’process) that repeatedly forms a specific circuit pattern in order to form an integrated circuit on a semiconductor substrate (wafer), and a test process that tests the characteristics of a semiconductor chip formed on the semiconductor substrate. After that, an assembly process for cutting the semiconductor substrate unit chips and packaging the chips is performed.
In the above-mentioned test process, specifically, a tip (or needle) of a probe card of a tester comes in contact with a pad of the semiconductor chip, and a signal is transmitted to the pad, so that it is possible to determine whether the semiconductor chip has defects or not. However, as the number of pads to be probed increases, it is difficult to accurately position a probe tip for signal transmission at each of the pads. For this reason, the probe tip may not come in contact with a normal portion of the pad, but rather may come in contact with only an edge portion of the pad.
In a conventional chip, a characteristic monitoring circuit section, which can monitor parameter data such as characteristics of voltage and current of an individual device used to operate the semiconductor chip, or an ESD (Electro-Static Discharge) circuit section may be provided below a part of the edge of the pad. If the probe tip is only contacting an edge of the pad, then, e.g., when excessive pressure is applied to the probe tip, the circuit section provided below the pad may be short-circuited to the pad. This can actually cause defects in the chip and/or can result in false test readings. As a result, the yield of the semiconductor chip may be decreased.